Restart
by nikkicchi
Summary: One phone call and it's all gone. With a goal to move on, Aomine moves to NYC two years later, only to find the guy he's trying to move on from standing right in front of his apartment... with a toddler beside him. Sometimes, it seems as if fate finds fun in messing them up. Aokise, slight kagakuro.
1. One - starting anew

**Note:** new lame fanfiction, h0lla. **warning** for cussing, smut in later chapters, gay people (if you're anti-homo then gtfo), unbeta'd, au, and stuff. the first chapter does not give you a quite good feeling, but i assure you that this is romance/comedy.

pairings are aokise and somewhat kagakuro. (it's aomine who chases after kise here.) ratings may change from T to M. /smirks

**disclaimer:** as far as i'm concerned my name is not tadatoshi fujimaki.

* * *

The sun shone down on bright blonde locks as it swayed along with the fresh summer breeze of Japan. It was a blur at first; a messed up yellow blob floating as the sun made it seem brighter as it already was. He grimaces—he had always hated bright things anyway.

Aomine squints, occasionally rubbing his eyes to try to fixate his vision onto whatever's in front of him.

It got closer and closer, as if running towards him, until he could see an outline of a face—an extremely familiar one. Is that Kuroko? Hah, but it was blonde though. Maybe Alex or Miyaji? He frowns at the thought, wiping his already dry eyes with the back of his hand. Then he scowls at himself, thinking it's an illusion or hallucination and was ready to turn around and head out of this place. But then out of nowhere he's suddenly shoved backwards, on his butt and then on his back, with a heavy weight on top of him.

"Aominecchi!" It calls, and everything's suddenly all clear—it's Kise. Aomine bolts up from his lying position, and at the same time letting his former team-mate fall off from straddling his hips and onto his thighs. And in a swift motion his fists are filled with a handful of Kise's shirt, leaning in angrily, glaring furiously at the blonde.

Before he could spit out questions, he's interrupted with Kise's innocent look and smiles. "What's wrong, Aominecchi?"

"You..." Aomine breathes out. He doesn't know what to feel. Hurt? Anger? "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Aw. That's the first thing I hear from Aominecchi when I get back? I'm hurt." Kise laughs quietly, and the ace simply stares bitterly at him. The model just smiles, but Aomine doesn't get to observe if it's fake or real before he feels something—something soft but rough and damp at the same time; something he wish he hadn't felt but wanted to for such a long time—Kise's lips on his own. And much to his chagrin, his eyes closing automatically and he leans in for more.

It all happens too fast, but when Kise pulls away there is a sinister smirk plastered on his face. Aomine's dazed eyes now become alert and wide—and then all those feelings of bitterness sink back in. The blonde rises from his position on the man's lap, prying his clenched fists off his shirt and dusting unseen dirt off before turning around to look at Aomine through cold, emotionless eyes. "What? Are you going to fall for that again, Aominecchi?" The usual outgoing tone on his suffix of -chi has turned into mocking. "I'm sorry for getting your hopes up, I hope we never see each other again."

He leaves, walking slowly away from Aomine and into some place that used to be sunny and beautiful and now hollow and dark. He wants to run after him and punch him will all the feelings he had bottled up inside, or (as much as he'd never admit even to himself) run after him and shake an explanation out of him, and ask him to stay.

But he doesn't.

Because he can't run after a Kise who _isn't_ Kise.

Or maybe the Kise he thought he knew wasn't Kise all along.

* * *

Instead, an alarm clock wakes him up from the horrible nightmare and he sits bolt upright from his bed, wiping cold sweat off the back of his neck and forehead. Minutes later, he resorts to punching the shit out of his pillow and then burying his face and _screaming_ his frustrations out in it.

He doesn't deserve to be tormented by dreaming about someone he's been forced to treat like a dead person. By someone who just disappeared out of the face of the earth, leaving only after a fucking phone call, breaking Aomine all over again as he thought about regrets and what-ifs and stuff.

He walks into his bathroom in an un-lively manner, not bothering to close the door before he's stripped off his clothes and showering in cold water. He doesn't care if it's fucking freezing or what not. He's used to this—it happens almost at least a month, where he dreams about Kise in different scenarios but with the same cold, sardonic expression. It's totally different from the Kise he's known for 8 years. Different from the Kise he's seen when he meets him by accident, the Kise who screamed _See you, Ahominecchi!_ two years ago when they last saw each other, the Kise whom he fell in love with.

In fact, he has never seen this expression on Kise Ryouta before. And he hates it—everything, how his mind creates this image of this kind of Kise, just because of a single fucking phone call.

* * *

When he gets out of the shower, the apartment is unusually clean and almost empty, except for the covered furnitures, two big boxes, and a suitcase placed near the door. He stares at his surroundings before it has dawned onto him.

Oh, right. He was moving to the States tonight.

* * *

Five hours before his scheduled flight to New York he receives a call from Kuroko and Kagami requesting him to meet up Maji Burger near his place and offering him a ride to the airport. He agrees reluctantly, seeing that he has seen neither them nor the other GoM members since the past few months.

When he arrives at Maji's, both Kuroko and Kagami are sitting down on the far end corner, discussing random stuff. It's Kagami who spots him first, since his seat was facing the entrance of the restaurant, and he waves at Aomine to come sit with them.

When Aomine gets comfortable in his seat Kagami volunteers to get up and order for all of them, giving Kuroko and Aomine space to talk about stuff. The atmosphere is awkward, and Aomine frowns, leaning his chin on his palm while he directed his vision onto the passers-bys outside.

"Aomine-kun," Kuroko says minutes later, breaking the heavy silence between them. Aomine doesn't budge from his position but cocks his head to the side to get a better view of the smaller man in front of him.

"What is it, Tetsu?"

Kuroko stares at him with big, calculating eyes for what seemed an eternity before closing them and sighing. The former ace simply raises an eyebrow in confusion, and in reply he's offered a small smile from the other man. He just smirks in return, then stare at each other, and they both end up bursting into small chuckles.

"So, how's it going now that you're living with that Bakagami?" He inquires now that the atmosphere is light, with genuine interest. "You probably have lots of rough nights, no?"

Five seconds of awkward silence and a series of weird expressions from Kuroko (Aomine had to bite the inside of his cheeks to suppress himself from laughing), the former shadow sighs for the second time in an hour and flashes Aomine a small, almost unnoticeable and teasing smirk. "We do, actually."

Aomine almost chokes on his own spit, and stares at Kuroko, jaw-slacked and wide eyed. "You actually—!?"

"What's going on here?" Kagami interrupts, holding a tray filled with mountains of burgers for himself, a vanilla shake for Kuroko, and a full meal for Aomine. Aomine turns to Kagami, his face still evident with utter shock and Kagami stared back with a big question mark written all over his face. Kuroko takes the vanilla milkshake from the tray, sipping on the straw while watching Kagami sit down and unwrap the yellow paper from his ultimate extra-large cheeseburger. "So...?"

"I was telling Aomine-kun about how we have a lot of rough nights."

Kagami turns beet red, pieces of chewed cheeseburger coughed up from his mouth, barely missing Aomine's shirt.

"It's an advantage of sharing an apartment together. He likes to moan..." Kuroko trails off, a thin smirk forming on his lips as he watched Aomine cover his ears with both palms and Kagami glare at him while looking like an ultimately embarrassed tsundere schoolgirl. "...about having to study every night. University is harder than high school, after all."

(...oh.)

"Tetsu, you sly bastard." Aomine mutters after offering him a glare of disbelief. "But judging from Kagami's expression, it must've been both, yeah?"

Kuroko casually takes a sip from his vanilla beverage. "Yes."

And there goes Kagami, shouting _Kuroko...!_ out of bewilderment and looking like he was about to slam his scarlet face on the table.

* * *

After 30 minutes of tormenting Kagami, with one almost empty cup of milkshake, 20 burger wrappers scattered on the table, and a couple of fries drowning in melting ice cream, Kagami decides to change the topic and talk about Aomine.

"Leaving for the states in three hours, huh... And you never even mentioned it to us. We even had to find out through Momoi-san."

Aomine smirks faintly, grabbing a couple of chocolate ice cream-soaked fries and sticking them in his mouth. "Yeah, rash decision. Figured it would be better to study and work there."

"Also a great way to move on from Kise." Kagami mutters bluntly, then quickly shuts his mouth after realizing his mistake. The next moment he's doubled over, clutching his abused sides, grunting something about how he didn't mean it and how Kuroko should stop being such a 'violent bastard'.

x

_"You have to get over Ki-chan, Dai-chan. It's been a long time already." Momoi had once told him, sighing as she watched him stare blankly at the television, clicking on random buttons on the remote. He scowled, not directing his eyes away from the electronic device, but somehow Momoi knew that he was listening to her._

_"'Get over' him? Hah, why? There's nothing to move on from, Satsuki. He's a friend and friends leave whether you like it or not. If that's your definition of moving on, then whatever you want me to do is done."_

_"Pretending to be stupid is not cute at all, Dai-chan. You know you love him."_

_"As a friend."_

_"Stop lying to me."_

_"I'm not."_

_"If you're still that stubborn enough to continue lying to me even though you know that I know the truth, fine. But at least stop lying to yourself, and just accept that you're still in love with Ki-chan. And that you also have to move on."_

_x_

Aomine frowns a little at himself, but quickly covers it up with a weak chuckle. Then for the first time, he admits, "That too."

* * *

"Don't forget to visit us, Aomine-kun."

"I would if I could." He flashes a smile down onto the shorter guy, ruffling his light blue hair. "I'll definitely keep in touch though. I have your e-mails and you guys have mine, and I'll call and send souvenirs if I can."

Momoi kept a handkerchief over her eyes, trying to hide the tears falling from her eyes. "Dai-chan, you idiot. You should've just moved your trip to next year. Who will take care of you now?"

"Just tell me you'll miss me, Satsuki. I'll miss you too." He laughs, circling his arms around his best friend and placing his chin on top of her head. She sobs quietly into his chest and he awkwardly pats her back in return, and then catches a glimpse of Kagami who's trying to avoid eye contact. "Oi, Kagami. Don't cry you big baby."

"Who says I'm crying!?" Kagami argues back, and Kuroko pats his back while saying something along the lines of "But you look like you're about to", and the redhead just glares at him.

"I'll miss you too, Bakagami, Tetsu." He smiles, crooked but genuine, extending an arm to welcome them into a group hug. They both comply and end up laughing (with some tears added here and there), before the passengers for the plane Aomine's supposed to take is called to the lounging area.

"I'll be off, then."

"Stay safe, Aomine-kun."

"Ahomine, I'll be waiting for our next one-on-one match when you return!"

"Dai-chan! Don't forget about us! We'll definitely miss you!"

He smiles one last time, before turning around to take a deep breath. He's nervous when he steps into the plane, but shakes his head and heads on to the front to take his assigned seat near the wing of the plane.

* * *

Once the Boeing 767 is airborne, he knows there's no turning back now.

* * *

The plane lands and Aomine immediately notices the extreme difference between New York and Tokyo. The signs on everything aren't written in Kanji or Hiragana anymore, but a couple of jumbled letters from the English alphabet to form an actual word. No shit, Aomine thinks, massaging the back of his ear to relieve the awkward feeling deep inside his ears while taking his luggage and two boxes and stacking it on a trolley. Now Aomine thinks he really should be grateful that those assholes tried to force the language into his system or else he really would be fucked.

He does some wandering around the airport, looking at maps but not bothering to ask the staff. After he's found the place where cabs are parked, he waves at a taxi and instructs the driver in rough english to head to the address his aunt had written on a piece of paper.

The American driver laughs—most likely at his slightly heavy accent— and it takes all of Aomine's self-control to suppress his hot headedness and not stand up to beat the living shit out of the bastard.

* * *

When Aomine arrives at the parking lot of what he supposed was his new apartment building, he leaves the cab driver with a certain amount of cash and an extra bonus of a "Fuck you."

* * *

The apartment building was big, neat but not too luxurious, and looked more than enough for him. The actual apartment slot was much better though, since he was on the 26th floor and had a huge window he had a great view of some parts of NYC. His aunt had already delivered some furniture to his small apartment, so all he had to actually do was clean up a bit.

There was only one bedroom and one bathroom, and a kitchen on the other side of the apartment. It took Aomine almost five hours to finish up putting on the bed sheet, tucking his clothes into the drawers, hanging up jackets and formal wear in the built-in closet, placing necessary stuff inside the drawers of the kitchen and the bathroom, putting up curtains and adding some decorations (such as photo frames containing different pictures and putting the small GoM figurines and trophies on top of drawers).

Once he's done, he flops down onto his new bed and falls into a deep, deep sleep.

* * *

When Aomine wakes up the next day, he falls off his bed.

Grunting, he sits up and takes in the uneasy feeling of being in a room he isn't used to. The light shines bright into his room and he blinks in confusion, before realizing that in fact he _is_ in New York and therefore he's _supposed_ to adjust and get used to being in a different time zone. It's only a day and yet Aomine misses Momoi's violent wake up tactics, Kuroko and Kagami's text spams on his phone inviting him to play basketball or to eat out, and some unexpected calls or texts from former team-mates.

And—even though it has already been over two years—especially Kise's stupid, cheerful _'Morning, gangurocchi~! (/`3')/ wakey wakeey~_ text messages every morning.

After taking a quick shower, he walks around the house half-naked and heads to the fridge, only to find a carton of milk, eggs, and ham.

"Fuck this," he mutters to himself, snarling, and drags his own ass back to the bedroom to put on decent sweatpants and a black, V-neck shirt. He grabs his keys and slips on a pair of shoes, and then heads down to the streets to hunt for a mini-mart or at least a convenience store where he could buy something to keep him well fed for a week. Probably rice and something.

When he returns with a couple of cup noodles, a sack of rice, some random vegetables and some raw meat, he decides that it's probably time that he should learn how to cook.

* * *

First self-served dinner in New York, is when Aomine realizes that his cooking skills are _amazing_(-ly destructive, disgusting, horrible... you get the point), and somehow he's just glad he has yet to poison himself.

* * *

While he grimly chews on his burnt roasted pork (with especially added un-chopped lettuce and carrots on top) and saggy porridge-like rice a week later, there's an unexpected knock on his door. He stands up from the couch, plate still in his hand, and doesn't even bother to peek through the peep-hole when he unlocks the door.

Five seconds after he opens it, the plate in his hands falls and then shatters.

Just like his resolve to _move on_.

* * *

There, right in front of him, stood the man he has dreamt of for the past two years. The cause of his frustrations, regrets, his what-ifs. The guy who used to be his everything, who forcefully shoved his way into his heart.. who showed him what a first love, an unrequited love—what a heartbreak is like.

The reason to why he even moved to New York.

Kise Ryouta.

And a small toddler with blue hair and honey brown orbs, carrying a backpack too big for him, gripping onto Kise's sweatpants like he was the last source of protection.

And when his attention is directed away from the kid and to Aomine, something just clicks and they're both frozen in utter shock.

* * *

"Aomine...cchi?"

* * *

Aomine likes to think that whoever controls their fate and destiny, are insensitive, retarted, extremely useless imbeciles who have no idea what they're doing. Or that America is a cursed country— like, damn, it hasn't even been a week since he's stepped on American grounds when trouble comes up.

(Twice more the trouble than what he expects, actually, and that... will be discovered by Aomine later on)

* * *

**note:** reviews are appreciated, thank you x.

this was supposed to be angst or something, but... orz. yeah i'm the type of person who really can't handle angst (niagara falls tears everytime) so i'm just gonna sob in a corner cause all i can write is fluff and supposed-to-be-but-srsly-lame comedy.

okay i'll shut up now, bye.


	2. Two - the chase

**Note:** oh god last week when i logged into my email all i saw was fanfiction stuff. omg thank youuuuu? ;w;; I HEART YOU ALL COME HERE LET ME LOVE YOU? /shots. expect slight angst and is supposed to get you curious. **i don't own this**, otherwise the anime would be full of gay smex and fucking in the middle of the court. rated t+. expect more discussions than the prologue._ i need a damn beta im so lost man help._

**Edit**: I've read this all over again before updating ch. iii and dear lord the out-of-characterness (orz). This is updated! (and still ooc (double orz))

* * *

**Because simply sitting down and talking things out is too mainstream for them.**

**ch II**

What the actual fuck.

It's the first sentence that comes in Aomine's mind, before he grabs the door handle and slams it close. He takes weak steps back, almost tripping on his fifth step before stumbling back until his back lands on a wall.

And then it all sinks in.

(...shit.)

He might be wrong, but as far as Aomine can tell, there is a 99.9% chance that the dude gaping at him ten seconds ago was Kise Ryouta. Sure, he might be wearing thick framed glasses, or his hair might be a little longer that it's some centimetres past his earlobes, or that he seems and inch taller and slightly bit broader than the Kise that Aomine has seen two years ago, but..

Dear sweet mother of god he just hopes this is a hallucination.

Though, who else in the world would call him _Aominecchi_? Who else would wear that stupid eye-liner —"it's not an eye-liner It's the natural shape of my eye!" his damn ass. Or who else could smell like him, talk like him, act like him.. actually be like him? Common fucking sense and straight to the damn point: no one but Kise, and he better be damn right about this cause if there'd be another Kise on the Earth then, fuck.

This still has to be an illusion. Or a hallucination. Or a misunderstanding. Whichever.

But deep down inside, he knows it's all real. That Kise's on the other side of the door, and that they're only a few feet apart, and he is alive and breathing. It's what matters for now.

* * *

When he snaps out of his reverie, he stumbles back up and sprints, opening the door in such a rough motion that it almost snaps from it's hinges. The blonde is still there, hair fluttering from the wind caused by the door suddenly opening to his face, staring through his glasses with a clear _ohmygodohmygodohmygod_ expression written all over him.

Aomine reaches out—

"Ah."

—and Kise stammers and then _dashes_ down the hallway.

* * *

He's flabbergasted for a millisecond before taking in that the blonde is currently bolting down the hallway of their apartment building, escaping from his grasp after he's found him after so long. Clicking his tongue, he darts right after him, and Kise lets out an un-manly sounding eep!

The actual apartment complex consisted of more than twenty apartments per floor and is designed to look like the letter U when viewed from above. Kise has three options of escaping; one is to take the elevator which is vacant and opened right at their floor, two is to slam the fire exit open and scurry down the staircase, or three, take a sharp right turn to the left side of the apartment floor, dash down the hallways to increase speed, and them just barge through the staircase at the end of the hall and _run_ for his life.

Since one sounded that it might take too long (and that Aomine might make it in time before the elevator closes and he might- no, he _will_ throttle the blonde when he actually gets his hands on him), and two sounded like it'll just take him longer opening the door and will end up decreasing the distance beween them...

_Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud._

"Where the fuck do you think you're going!?"

...he might as well go with option number three.

"I don't know you, Aominecchi!" (—yeah, he doesn't know at all. *coughsarcasmcough.)

_Turn to the right._

"But you just said my name!"

_Run, run, run, faster. Increase speed. Use heels, not toes. _

"...why are you chasing me then!?"

_Bigger steps. Bigger steps, weight on heels—faster, he doesn't have to know. _

"Because you're running away from me, you idiot!"

_You don't want him to know. I have to go faster. Faster, go faster, feet. _

Run.

"I really don't know any ganguros like you! So I don't know you!"

...

Wait, did he just blurt that out—oh fuck. Kise quickly clamps his hands over his mouth, before looking behind to see Aomine glaring at him darkly, his feet increasing in speed. And then when he hears a dangerous _snap_, Kise knows that this just might be the end of his life.

"KISEEEEEE!"

"Eep!"

The fire exit's near.

_Three more huge steps. Then grab the handle._

Now sprinting in full speed, they reach the end of the darkly illuminated hallway when something whizzes just barely past Kise's earlobe, surprising the blonde. Kise looses concentration, taken aback of the fact that the his former team mate's shoes almost hit him square in the face—and now was lying on the ground, leaving a dent on the wall. The tanner man takes the opportunity and just _slams_ him to the opposite wall, putting both arms beside his head, just in case the model tries to escape him yet again. But Kise still does, crouching down underneath Aomine's arms and _gallops away _like crazy.

But unfortunately, Aomine catches him by the hood of his hoodie, and Kise being Kise... he looses his footing.

* * *

When he comes to, ex-ace finds himself on the carpeted floor of the hallway with Kise sprawled on top of him, looking like he's about to faint right on the spot. Then there's the sound of another door opening, and when Aomine looks up he finds a middle aged woman in her apron, looking downright pissed off while screaming in English about something along the lines of "Would you mind shutting the fuck up and bringing your activities to _your own_ apartment!?"

He cringes when the sound of the door closing echoes down the rather empty hall, before glaring down at half-closed honey brown eyes. Those eyes stare at him, distant and blank for a moment, before saying, "See? Stop running away from me, you brat."

Kise staggers when he tries to get up, prying himself from Aomine's lap and fighting the urge to give into the temptation of gravity. He tries to run yet again, but Aomine catches his wrists. When he turns around, the taller man has a glare that can make a million hells freeze over.

Shit.

* * *

The next moment, all Kise sees is the world around him turning upside down, before he feels large hands on his butt to keep him from toppling off whatever he was on.

And then the model finally apprehends the fact that Aomine is carrying him. Like a sack of potato, too, and he has no choice but to hang on for dear life since if he tries to trash around Aomine might, accidentally or not, let go—which means him falling off and cracking his skull which might just lead to a concussion or even death.

Well, crap.

The bluenette keeps his hand wrapped securely over Kise's waist and under his knees, huffing as he marches down the hall to his apartment. Kise tries to wriggle his way out of Aomine's strong grip, practically wheezing and clinging tightly to the back of Aomine's shirt—whoever the hell says this style of carrying is sweet or romantic is just absolutely insane. Damn, his stomach hurts like hell and it feels like every single ounce of blood his body has just rushed to his head.

"Aho.. minecchi..!" He breathes out in difficulty, sounding much like an old man trying to do sit ups. The said man huffs in return but doesn't reply, his attention on getting the keys out of his pocket. When the door opens, the first thing Kise notes is that Aomine can actually do housework- well, any housework that does not involve the kitchen, he adds, because that part of the apartment just reeks of burnt, rotten, and inedible food.

They step inside the apartment, and before Aomine could turn and face Kise away from the 'outside world', the lighter adult (violently) forces him to halt when his eye catches sight of the same honey brown orbs he has.

"Ow! What was that punch for!?" He hisses, annoyed.

Kise lets out a rough whine, pushing on the side of Aomine's head that he could possibly reach, and then pushes it as far away from him as possible. Aomine growls. "_Please_ put me down?"

"No."

"But—"

"No."

"I won't try to es—"

"No."

"Aomin—"

"No."

Kise hisses, and for once he reminds Aomine of a irritated cat, and not a dog. "There's a baby outside!"

Aomine clicks his tongue, heads straight to the kitchen, grabs a chair and places Kise on it. The blonde then gapes as he watches Aomine slowly (read:seductively) unbuckle his belt, his left foot placed on the chair and beside the gaping adult's thighs. Kise finds himself flushing, face colouring into the same shade as a tomato, as he watches tanned hands work on the leather thing placed around his waist. "W-what are you doing...?"

Aomine stares weirdly at him before his lips—almost inconspicuously—starts twitching upward in a somewhat teasing smirk, but fights the urge because fuck, he's supposed to be mad at this man.

"Tying you onto a chair so you can't escape," he mutters in response like it's the most obvious thing in the world, keeps the snickering to himself, and then leans in to buckle the belt when it's securely tied around Kise. He takes in the blonde's scent and notices that it has changed slightly; less feminine and citrus-y but still Kise-like. "We're gonna have to talk."

"But there's a baby outside!" Kise looks at him with a slightly flushed and panicked face, but quickly covers it up with some kind of puppy eyes, looking like he's about to cry. Aomine tsk's, turning around to grab the door handle for what seemed the nth time in one day. "Alright, but we're going to talk or I _will_ throttle and then castrate you."

Cold sweat runs down the back of Kise's neck; and he knows he better be listening to Aomine and his own guts. But then again he has to escape from Aomine's grasp. Something tells him that he's about to experience what being 'in deep shit' is like. "Aominecchi, the baby!"

Aomine eyes Kise suspiciously, lips formed into a thin frown and eyebrows almost joining midpoint. "Right. Wait, but then why would you leave your goddamn baby right in front of my apartment, you stupid father!?"

"Wait, aren't you the stupid father to leave his own daughter right in front of you own apartment?!" He retorts.

"But isn't she yours?!"

"Well, aren't you the da—!"

"Wait, _what_. You mean that baby's both ours!?"

Kise gawks at him, looking like his jaw's about to fall off if it hadn't been attached to the rest of his skeletal system. Aomine just looks downright incredulous, like he had a big fat question mark written all over his face because right now he's just _simply fucking confused_. "Oh my god,"

"What?"

"OhgodserioslyIgotyoupregnant whatIcantwhatshappening—"

"_What_," now it was Aomine's turn to give him the someone-tell-me-what-the-fuck-is-going-on stare, his hands still on the doorknob but doesn't make a move to step outside to retrieve the poor baby since he's too preoccupied trying to process the information in 'what little brain he has', as explained by Akashi. "Pregnant? Who, _me_?"

"So you're admitting it!?" Kise gasps—no, _shrieks_, his mouth hanging wide open.

"I wasn't admitting it, you dumbass! I was asking you a question!" Aomine responds, bringing his large hands up to his face to massage the bridge of his nose. "First of all, I am a guy-" he points down to the part where his so-called evidence is hidden, and then lifts up his v-neck shirt to show him his boobless but toned chest. "Do I need to completely strip for you?" he asks, in such a nonchalant way that it's almost funny. He watches as his blush darkens, before bringing up both his middle and pointy finger. "Second of all, we haven't even fucked,"

The blonde stared at him, blinking, before releasing a huge sigh of relief.

"What, did you honestly think I have a vagina," Aomine frowns, his words sounding more like an 'I'm clearly judging you and your stupidity' statement instead of a question. Kise splutters, trying to explain how there's a research going on about male pregnancy and how it might have happened to them for all he knows, but the ace simply ignores him and continues on with his speech.

"When I return you better be sitting quietly on that chair."

Aomine turns his back onto him, and doesn't see nor hear when he breathes out the words"_But I can't._"

* * *

When Aomine returns, Kise is nowhere to be found.

* * *

He's in front of closed elevator doors, furiously and frantically jabbing his index finger at the black 'down' button, hoping that by some miraculous chance he just blinks and the elevator's empty and open to bring him to the first floor to find that stupid blonde. But no, he knows it won't, since the numbers on top of the doors indicate that the elevator is 20 floors down and descending, meaning that he would have to wait for at least 10 minutes or so for it to arrive to their floor.

And if he ever needs to literally jump off down flights of stairs, he's knows that he can't — or rather, won't, since there's a peacefully sleeping toddle cradled in his arms and he's not much of a heartless bastard to turn the baby's sleep into an eternal one.  
Damn, right now he's just extremely frustrated.

- _Flashback (?)_ -

Once he was back into the apartment - young girl, clothes, and booster seat in hand, the first thing he's expecting to see is nowhere in sight.  
The chair, steadily standing in the middle of his living room, is empty. The leather belt he just removed five minutes ago is lying on the carpeted part of the floor. He's surprised and annoyed, to say at least, and Aomine drops the bags onto the cold hard floor and looks around.

No blonde hair. No stupid model face. No Kise.

No nothing, none, like he just simply dissipated in thin air.

"Kise.."

It's what he mutters under his breath, and Aomine is surprised that it hasn't come out shaky. He rushes towards the slightly opened balcony door, poking a head outside to see if there are any signs of the model, or even if there were any possible escape routes he could have gone through. He freezes when he remembers that there are only two possible exit/escape routes;

First is through the windows and the balcony, and plunge about more than 1000 feet downwards to the busy streets of new york. Second is simply through the main doors.

And then it dawns onto him.

Shit.

Aomine makes a sharp turn towards the reverse direction, towards the door and away from the balcony, and grinds his teeth out of annoyance when he finds it slightly ajar instead of wide open, just as he left it. That stupidly wise, sneaky bastard had hidden from him and waited until his attention was away from the door, before quietly sneaking out of his apartment.

Asshole.

He rushes out of his apartment, barely even locking the door, before running to the elevators just in case it was there at their floor. And to his utter annoyance, the elevator was 15 floors down and descending. Well, guess he had no choice.

Holding the kid - dare he say (possibly) Kise's child - securely towards his chest, he slams the staircase door open and begins skipping down the steps with a tad bit more of carefulness, seeing that he has a child in his care. Somehow he's displeased at the fact that of all the apartment suites he could've lived in on this apartment, it just had to be one located on a high level.

Yeah. Destiny's definitely having fun messing with them.

* * *

By the time Aomine reaches the tenth floor, he's practically wheezing his ass off.

Darn, he knew he should've continued training for basketball.

* * *

Three steps. Three steps, and the door leading in and out the staircase for floor 1 flings open and barely pounds into the face of an unsuspecting passerby. It's a teenage girl and she looks at him in downright astonishment and—

Aomine barely even starts his apology before a flash of lemon-yellow catches his azure eyes.

* * *

The next moment, he realizes he's sprinting yet again.

* * *

"Oi!"

Kise stops midway of climbing into a taxi. He twirls around, blonde hair swaying along with the autumn wind, and then...

"STOP RIGHT THERE YOU LITTLE SHIT."

—scampers away like it's his last logical decision in life. Aomine finds himself itching to temporarily rip the model's legs of to prevent him from running away again. Though, he doesn't, but he does start chasing after Kise with a menacing glare that would seriously make him want to dig his own grave and die in it.

Basically, the look on Aomine's face automatically sends Kise the 'when I catch you I will seriously asphyxiate and wring you and maim your dick after I cripple it badly' message without even having to voice it out. Kise feels like screaming like a girl.

And he does. Kind of.

Aomine doesn't care if he looks like a serial killer with a baby in hand, chasing an innocent young lady (correction: twenty year old man who models and plays basketball) who's screaming his lungs out. He just wants to get the stupid, said twenty year old man, and bring him back to his apartment for a peaceful—well  
at least as nonviolent as possible—conversation over a cup of tea.

He's going to make sure he does. And luckily, Kise trips over some random shoe in the middle of the side walk.

* * *

Manhandling an extremely whiny Kise all the way back up to the 26th floor was hard, considering that he has a toddler in his care, who miraculously had still not woken up through the whole ordeal. He has the model over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes for the second time in half an hour, and the young girl well tucked underneath his arms.

When they get back, the first thing Aomine thinks is, _fuck the peaceful conversation over a cup of tea_, and flings Kise on the couch after gently placing the toddler back into her seat.

"A-A-Aominecchi..."

He sits beside the blond's laying figure, pressing both palms on both sides of the model's head, trapping the model. He locks gazes with him, firm cobalt eyes clashing with wide citrine ones, and Kise finds himself too nervous to be embarrassed about the suggestive position they were in.

"Kise." He calls, leaning in slightly further catch his attention when the other tries to look away from him. Kise looks back up at him, scared, and Aomine sighs and rests his head onto his shoulder. The shorter man out of both lets out a surprise yelp at the sudden breath near the junction of his neck and shoulders, but Aomine doesn't realize the slight discomfort and embarrassment and instead drags his head higher until his locks brush up to Kise's ear. "Spill."

"S... spill what?"

"Everything."

The other man chuckles nervously, trying to shift on the sofa. "There's nothing to spill out..?"

"Kise," Aomine drawls in a flat but warning tone, closing in slightly towards Kise and looks at him dangerously in the eye. He presses his lips together into a dangerous smile while Kise tries to calm himself because inwardly it's chaos in his head and he's panicking like hell. "What do you mean there's nothing? _Nothing_?"

"Aominecchi, I..."

"There's no _nothing_, Kise,"

"Look—"

"Hah," Aomine scoffs, forcing out a bitter smile as he tilts his head to one side and looks at the other with such serious eyes that it makes him shudder. Kise goes back to nibbling his bottom lip and averting his attention from Aomine, but the other just leans in further until Kise and practically feel his breath. "There is no nothing, Kise. It's_ everything_."

"Aominecchi, listen—"

"That phone call. Oh, good afternoon, Aomine. Don't talk to me any more 'cause I'm fucking done admiring you. Oh and I'm done leading you on too. Let's forget about each other, I don't give a damn fuck any more, I'm _sorry_," he mimics with so much sardonicism that it _hurts_, and he sinks back into his couch while sighing exasperatedly. Kise flinches, and even though it's not the exact words he had said two years ago and he knows Aomine's over exaggerating it—

Hearing his own words scoffed out of Aomine's mouth while he looks so hurt just stings like a bitch.

"Two and a half years. I waited. You never came. Satsuki, Kuroko, Kagami, everyone—they told me to forget about you. That phone call, the nightmares, god I feel like a fucking girl. But honestly, it is not _nothing_ to me, Kise."

"Aominecchi..."

"Fuck, alright, yeah. It's totally nothing 'cause I felt _pathetic_, waiting for you for two and a half years to explain this goddamn thing and then when you come back the first thing you do is run away."

His grip on the edge of the chair tightened, knuckles turning paper white. "Look, I can explain this, I just can't right now—"

"You know what? Forget it." Aomine mutters, pulling away from Kise, from the scent, from his warmth.

The blonde jolts at both his words and the loss of his warm breath on his shoulders, breathing in shakily, and when he feels thorough loss of warmth from his whole body, he reaches up and wraps his arms around Aomine's neck before he could pull away. "I'm sorry."

Silence.

"I'm sorry... I'll tell you someday, I just, it's complicated right now, Aominecchi."

Silence.

"For now, let me linger around for a while. I swear I won't try to leave until I tell you everything— I... I promise, Aominecchi. I'm sorry."

Aomine is the type of person who doesn't forgive easily.

But when it comes to Kise, every intellectual logic he has left just flies out of the window. And vice versa.

"Whatever," The tanned man mumbles gruffly into Kise's shoulders, feeling Kise's hands grip tighter on his shirt when he tries to back away from their hug. "It's the past. You want to leave, go ahead. It's not like I care any more."

Yet Kise knows that he still does, since he feels Aomine's hands unconsciously grip at the side of his shirt - he's nervous. Kise's lips break into a smile but he immediately bites it to keep the tears from building up in his eyes. "Haha! Aominecchi's turning into Midorimacchi,"

"Hah!?"

"What a tsundere~"

"Shut up," he growls, face turning light pink. "I'm giving you a choice here, you can leave now and I'll never bother you again for all I care—"

Kise snickers, "Exactly my point."

"And when did you get so cocky?" He scowls, pulling away before playfully pulling on the other's cheek. Kise whines about how half of his face will get saggy if he pulls that hard, trying to slap Aomine's hand off his cheek but failing miserably when he ends up slapping himself.

Before Kise could rant about how much of a jerk Aomine is, a loud shriek interrupts their small quarrel. Aomine blinks and turns around, ready to get to the baby when he feels a rough tug at the end of his shirt.

_I'll tell you everything eventually, Aominecchi. But for now let's just wait until everything's over._

_Please, just wait. Until he's gone— I'll tell you everything you want to know, everything I want you to know. Just... please,_

It's what Kise wants to say, but he doesn't. He just smiles and shakes his head when Aomine raises an eyebrow at him, stands up himself and then pushes him towards the little baby.

For now, he'll just have to watch over Aomine himself.

* * *

"Aominecchi, look, so cute!" he squeals like a girl, grinning cheekily at the baby who laughed as he raised her high up into the air. "Somehow she reminds me of you a lot. Are you sure you didn't get any girl pregnant?"

The ex-ace scowls, shooting him a warning glare from across the room. "Do I look much of a sex addict to you?"

"Well," The blonde grins sheepishly, carrying the toddler under his arms. Aomine frowns, saying something about how the other was supposed to deny it, but Kise just shrugs it off and walks away while laughing like a maniac along with the baby.

Damn, if this stupid model gets too caught up with this baby, and vice versa, how is he supposed to separate them when they find her mother? He sinks back into the couch, foot up the coffee table, as he clicks away through American television shows.

And then the laughing stops.

The next thing he hears are sounds of heavy footsteps running down the hallway, and before Aomine could stand up to check out what's going on, Kise pops out of nowhere and almost scares the crap out of Aomine.

"Aominecchi!" He wheezes out, and Aomine notes how he should take the blonde to go jogging and get him back in shape cause it seems like simply running down the hallway has drained out the energy of the other. "Look!"

"...ha?" He asks, confused as Kise approaches him and hands him a folded paper, before dropping onto the couch next to him with the blue haired girl still sandwiched between his arms and waist. "The hell is this? A love letter?"

Kise offers him a deadpanned expression.

Aomine laughs, raising both his hands in defeat, before unfolding the letter and taking a close look at it.

_This is Sai-chan, _

_She's almost 3 years old, birthday is on September 8. Please take care of her. Thank you._

"Sai? No last name?" Kise mutters over Aomine's shoulder, and the girl looks up at him with similar honey brown eyes. The model grins and begins doting over her, ruffling her slightly wavy cyan hair affectionately. "Hmm, how about I call you Sachi? Or Sa-chan? How cute!"

Sachi offers him a toothless smile and Kise swears he just felt an arrow go right through his heart.

"Look how cute she is, Aominecchi!" He says ecstatically, turning around just to see Aomine staring at the paper with all the blood from his face draining away. Kise blinks, pale fingers poking at slightly tanner cheeks, and he almost laughs at the . "Aominecchi?"

The said man runs both hands over his face. "Oh crap,"

"What's wrong?" Kise stares at him with a quizzical expression, pauses for a second as if he's in deep thought, before gasping over-dramatically. Both Aomine and Sachi jolts when he does. "Don't tell me... you figured out who her mom is?! You got someone pregnant? Aominecchi how could you!"

Aomine glowers at him, slapping the backside of his head. "No, you dumbass! It's just—How the fuck do you even handle a baby? I don't even know how to cook food for her, or how to change diaper, or how to give her a bath—"

There was silence.

Which was soon followed by choking, rolling on the floor and crazy fits of laughter.

"Shut up!"

* * *

**note:** sweet mother of god help me

i tried to fit in angst and romance/humour and aokise fluff and sa-chan and discussions and i swear this has been the craziest thing ever - orz. i know this chapter wasn't much of what everyone expected (i'm sowwee ;w;) i still hope people enjoy it though. oh by the way expect this story to be updated on either friday, saturday, and sunday of every week.

reviews, faves, and follows are very much appreciated /grins and ends up scaring people. x


	3. Three - acceptance

**Note****: **if you've read **chapter two** before february 26 then please get your ass back the middle of the previous chapter cause i revised it, fufu.

oh & i did say this would be updated every fri/sat/sun of every week—i meant every two weeks cause my writing skills are as gay as my otp and i simply cannot finish a 4,000+ word chap in a week ok orz. anyway.** warning** for cussing, mentions of sex, and if you are 12 and below or homophobic or badwriterphobic, gtfo.

my name is not tadoshi fujimaki (but im still fabulous /flips hair and gets shot)

* * *

**Babies should not be sandwiched between the sexual tension of two gay basketball players, just had to point that out.**

**ch III**

"Ahominecchiii,"

A finger, which what seems to come out of nowhere, repeatedly jabs Aomine's cheeks and barely missing his partially opened mouth when he shifts. The ex-ace grunts in response, rolling over to another side, and falls off the couch. It doesn't take long before a snort escapes Kise's lips, and when Aomine glares at him through barely parted eyelids, his snorting turns into full blown snickering.

But as much as he look like he does, Aomine doesn't get annoyed. For once, he's happy to be waken up, happy that Kise's face is the first thing he sees when he returns back to his conciousness.

(...even though the look he's giving Aomine says that he should be completely annoyed. Said asshole is still chortling behind his hand.)

"Ugh, you bastard," he mutters, rolling his head in a circular motion and wincing at the cracking sounds, before rising up from his position on the floor while glaring at the cackling model. Kise simply grins cheekily in return. "Could you not use that stupid nickname with your stupid voice? It's annoying to hear first thing when I wake up,"

"So mean!" He pouts, sticking his bottom lip out, and Aomine notes how they still haven't changed much over the past two years. He finds it relieving, how he could still converse with (translate: bully) him without feeling the least a bit of awkwardness. Kise would agree.

"Heh.. you didn't try to escape now, huh?" Aomine smiles, sitting on the armchair while Kise sits on the coffee table. It's awkward, muttering something like that and smiling so uncharacteristically, but he can't help it; the thought alone makes him want to smile.

Kise, on the other hand, feels his heart flutter—like what those typical shoujo manga heroines feel, those doki-doki moments that Aomine used to ridicule and scoff at while he and Satsuki gushed about the romantic scenes. "Well, it's Aominecchi. And I promised I'd tell you, didn't I? Did Aominecchi really think that I'd break my promise?"

"Five years ago, I lent you my favourite basketball and you promised me not to—"

"It's not like I intentionally shot the ball into that garbage truck!" Kise replies. "I even got you a new one of the same brand cause you made me feel guilty with all the sulking you did!"

"On the last week before graduation, we were supposed to meet at my house to hang out to play basketball and grab lunch. You promised to get there on time but you ended up arriving two hours late," he challenges, sinking back and slinging an arm over the couch.

Kise scowls, much to Aomine's liking. "I met literally everyone on my way to your house. Besides, I was the one who paid for the expenses that day 'cause you wouldn't forgive me!"

"It wasn't enough,"

"Cheapskate."

Aomine smirks, still mentally listing all the times where Kise had broken his promises, while the blonde watches him closely while shifting his sitting posture into an meditating position. "And you promised me something during a game at high school too.. ah," Aomine tilts his head, as if he's deep in thought, before slowly looking at Kise with a sly grin. "That admiration speech you gave me.. 'I'll stop admiring you' my ass. That promise never happened."

It took a full 1.28 seconds before Kise could register what Aomine just said. And when he finally does, the bluenette finds himself suppressing the grin about to spread on his face when the colour of the model's face drastically changes from pale to scarlet. "And what makes you so sure that it never happened?"

"Because," he raises up a finger, "one, in the end you still ended up flooding my phone with invites to play one-on-one - no one ever repeatedly asks one to play with them over and over again if they don't admire them," then another finger, "two, you still kept on copying my styles on games even after that game," and then he raises up the third, wagging it up in the air and smirking arrogantly when Kise blushes further more. "and lastly, you kept on repeating that line over and over again so it probably never happens, ne?"

"You - I... I don't—," Kise splutters, pauses, growls sofly and then finally sighs, placing an elbow on his knee and chin on his palm. "_Aho_minecchi has turned into _arrogant_minecchi or_ smartass_minecchi now, hm."

Aomine rolls his eyes before glaring at him, "Where the fuck do you even get those stupid nicknames?"

"My brain?"

"What brain?"

"Aominecchi—!"

The taller guy chuckles throatily, before raising both hands up in the air. Kise watches in amusement, taking note on how Aomine has slightly matured, both physically and mentally. _Slightly_. "Alright, no more fighting so early in the morning or I'll get kicked out of this apartment."

"Morning? Eh, Aominecchi, you really still suck at telling the time,"

"Ha?"

The shorter man points his thumb at the wall behind him, and Aomine's attention is averted from Kise and onto the clock hanging on the wall.

_2:18_. And the living room's dark, with no signs of sunlight seeping through the window. The only actual source of light is the moon and the opened night stand located beside the television. Meaning that it's past midnight.

And somehow, he feels like he's forgetting something.

He stares at Kise, and Kise stares back at him with confused honey brown eyes, and—wait, honey brown eyes? "Ah–! Mai!"

"Eh? Aominecchi, I really hope you don't think I look like that model in the porn mags you used to jack off to." Kise replies flatly, his whining turning more into sulking. But Aomine doesn't notice, since he's too busy trying to remember the name of the kid left to his care.

"No, I mean Kai. Or was it Dai? Wait, that's my name," he mutters the last part, scratching the back of his head as Kise simply stares at him in perplexity. Then he catches on to what Aomine's been blabbering about.

"You mean Saicchi?"

"Ah, yeah," he says, making a face when Kise decides to comment on his poor memory. He retorts with a criticism on Kise's grades when they where in middle school, but Kise just scoffs again and comes back with an excuse of how he always has at least one score higher than Aomine on tests.

Aomine throws a glare at his direction.

"Anyway, about Mai—,"

"_Sai_," Kise corrects.

"Yeah, yeah." Aomine dismisses the argument, gets up from the leather sofa and starts walking towards the short hall of his one bedroom apartment. It's dark, but he's been walking down this same mini hallway for the past week, so he doesn't bump into anything. "Where is she? Is she asleep?"

"Ah, while you were asleep I dropped by the adoption centre and—"

Aomine freezes, "You _what_?"

Kise looks at him in what looks like perplexity, while the other just gapes openly at him. "Again, I dropped by the adoption centre so you don't have to—"

"Kise. Where is she?"

"In your room..?"

"But you just said you gave her to the adoption centre,"

"No! I'd.. She's too cute to be given up for adoption, Ahominecchi! And you should let me finish my sentence first! I was meaning to say that I dropped by the adoption centre to hand in the form you were supposed to fill out,"

This catches his attention, "What form?"

"The adoption sheets. You were sleeping and I figured you'd have me do it for you anyway, so I just did it in advance,"—he huffs, and then rolls his eyes when Aomine comments with a _touché_—"It was easy looking through your stuff anyway–oh, you still keep that sparkly pink underwear Midorimacchi gave you as a graduation gift, Aominecchi~?"

Said sparkly-pink-underwear-keeper throws another glare at him over his shoulder and opens the door to his bedroom. "Satsuki helped me pack. That idiot probably sneaked that stupid thing inside my bag."

"Hn,"

"I'm telling the truth."

"Alright." Kise mutters, chuckling lightly as he graced his way into the room. Aomine scowls at him, following suit, watching as Kise sits on the heels of his feet before caressing the cerulean locks of the small girl. The taller man sits on the office chair not far away from where Sai is sleeping, and tells Kise that he could sit on the bed if he wanted to. The blonde does as suggested. "Anyway, Aominecchi, if you're gonna be a daddy then at least have some decent food in your fridge."

"...which I have."

"It's not decent if it can kill a human being twice."

"Are you insulting my cooking?"

"So I passed by the convenience store down the road—" "Oi! Don't change the subject, you ass!" "—and got things for Saicchi that you'll probably need over the next few days. And of course, you'll need me too," He grins cheekily, winking and holding up the peace sign, but Aomine simply ignores him and continues his moping on about how his cooking skills just got flat out sneered upon.

Kise finds it hard holding back on another biting comment, because heck, his Ahominecchi just looks too adorable while pouting.

_Sadist_.

Hm, maybe that's why the other generation of miracle members find fun in 'bullying' him... actually, no, Kise's pretty sure that's the reason to why his former team mates used to bully him mercilessly ever since he's started playing basketball. Sadistic bastards.

It hasn't even been three minutes ever since Aomine started sulking when a dying whale sound interrupts Kise's daydreams.

Wait. Dying whale?

"Ah.." Aomine mutters, flushing slightly as he scratches the back of his head. "Sorry, that was my stomach. I'll go get snacks for a sec."

Kise stares at him for a millisecond, slightly shocked, and makes some kind of foreign noise that sounds like something in between a wheeze and a snort, before erupting into small, supposedly restrained fits of cackles. Aomine feels his face heat up in embarrassment and holds himself back from throwing the dictionary at Kise since it might wake the toddler up.

"Shut up!"

"Ahahaha!"—he stops and take two deep breaths (which makes him sound more like he's being strangulated)—"Okay, alright, I,"—sounds of wheezing are starting to fill the room and Kise can't help but burst into more fits of laughter as Aomine glares at him with more intensity—"I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I just... pfft,"—and then more snorts follow his speech and the only time he stops is when Aomine stomps his way up to him and hits him at the back of his head.

"Shut up," he grunts, his face showing signs of tremendous irritation, eyeing Sai as she stirs on his bed. "You're waking up the kid with all your absurd guffawing."

Kise, who's now curled up on his bed in a foetus position while cradling his bruised head, halts his whimpers and whines to give the other man a dirty look. "You make me sound like I laugh like a dying horse,"

"Well—"

Kise pouts, sticking out his bottom lip and looking at Aomine with upturned eyes (...which is basically his if-you-say-i-actually-do-then-i'll-make-you-feel-like-the-greatest-scum-on-earth look.)

"—fine, you don't."

The blonde grins.

"I lied."

"So mean!" He mopes, but smiles when the other chuckles lightly. Slowly, he gets up from the bed and re-drapes the blanket over the two year old, patting her head lightly and then slowly makes his way to the door. "Aominecchi's hungry, right? Let's go to the kitchen, I tried making food."

This catches Aomine's attention. "Heh. You're gonna be a good mother someday, Kise."

"You meant father,"

"Mother."

"Eeeh? I'm a guy, Aominecchi!"

"I don't care, it's still mother."

"Hm? Who'll be the daddy then?" Kise asks, maybe not so innocently as he skips ahead before Aomine to get a better look at his face. When he does, there's the same cocky, Aomine-like smirk on his face, before the taller man droops closer to him and sticks out his tongue.

"Me, of course."

And there goes Kise's heart yet again.

* * *

It hasn't even been half an hour ever since the blonde had bluntly insulted his (horrible) cooking skills, when Aomine finds out that his own culinary skills are almost equally as horrifying.

Almost.

The only difference is that Kise's cooking is actually edible and Aomine's could, well... kill a human being twice, as quoted by Kise. Once they're both finished gulping down the over-cooked vegetables drowned in over-seasoned (but fortunately still tolerable to the human taste buds and digestive system) stew, they both decide to actually search up recipes and self-teach on how to cook.

* * *

Kise falls asleep on the couch slowly after, and Aomine ventures into his room to find extra pillows and blankets. He finds them after 30 minutes of searching, placed neatly at the top shelf of his built in closet, and he tiptoes back out to pull the blanket over Kise's thin figure and then place the two pillows, one under the blond's head and one around his arms.

He spends the rest of his night going back and forth between the bedroom and the living room, watching over both Kise and Sa-chan, before he himself falls asleep on the bed beside the child.

* * *

It's almost 9 in the morning when Aomine wakes up; which is actually 4 hours before he normally does.

This time, it isn't a whiny voice that forces him to wake up, but a high pitched one, blabbering a series of sounds like _buh!_ or _aa!_ or _jiiiiiiii~_. He forces his eyes open to be met by wide but laughing honey eyes, and he blinks for a couple of seconds before his lips break into a crooked smile.

"Mornin'"

"Mmnih?" It's spoken in what seems to be a question, and he watches in amusement as Sai tilts her head and starts poking on his cheek, before squirming underneath his arm. Oh. He pauses, remembering that he had slept at the far corner of the bed just in case he ends up unconsciously flattening the poor tiny toddler underneath him. How come he's at the middle of the bed?

He rolls over to the other side of the bed, freezing when the half of his back touches something hard and soft at the same time.

"Ow!"

He blinks. "Wha?! What are you doing on my bed, Kise?!"

"Nn... what," came a muffled grunt, and the bed squeaks when Kise turns over, followed by a soft _thud_ when his forehead meets the bedside table. Another ouch and a whine came and Aomine couldn't help but smirk at the scene. "Ugh... goo' morning."

"Morning, idiot. Why are you on my bed?"

"'Cuz Ahominejji ish wam'n sof'n comfhee? (Because Aominecchi is warm and soft and comfy?)" He answers back with a question, the pillow on his face slightly drowning out the words. But before the  
taller guy could respond, Kise beats him to it. "'mineshi... Ahuminejjii..."

And yet again, before Aomine could come back with an annoyed remark, Kise's outburst of "Ah... AOMINECCHI?" while literally snapping his face away from the pillow interrupts him. "OMG WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE ON MY BED IN MY APARTMENT IN NEW YORK IN U.S.—"

"Aren't you the one on my bed, in my apartment, in New York and in U.S.?"

"—WITHIN A FIVE MILE RADIUS, HELL, EVEN 1 MILLIMETRE RADIUS AWAY FROM ME BREATHING THE SAME AIR, _ONE-FOURTH NAKED_ AND STILL ON THE SAME BED OH MY GOD —"

Then he's cut off when another head smashes onto his own.

"It hurts!"

"You finally decided to shut up," he grunts, massaging his temples as Kise massages the right side of his head, groaning about how much pain he has had in one morning. "First of all, hopefully you're not asleep any more and you aren't spluttering nonsense,"

"Second, you climbed into my bed," he responds in a dead-panned manner but the amused glint in his dark blue eyes gives him away. Kise just gawks at him, still on the bed and practicality hyperventilating with his index pointing straight at Aomine. "And what the fuck, one-fourth naked? What the hell does that even mean?"

Tanned hands suddenly clamp over parting lips and the rant bubbling from Kise's mouth are forcefully shoved back down his throat, and he has no choice but to take a deep breath and calm down.

"Buh?" It's a sound that comes from behind Aomine, and Kise's eyes flicker, recognizing the cerulean hair similar to Aomine's. He wouldn't be surprised if she's actually Aomine's daughter by blood, since the hair colour looks exactly like Aomine's, and her personality seemed a bit like his when they were in middle school. But then again, those eyes and face shape look strikingly familiar. Aomine takes Sai from behind and places her on his own lap, only lifting her up so she's be able to pat Kise's cheeks.

"Better?"

"Yup! Sorry," Kise chuckles sheepishly, scratching the back of his head and messing up his bed head even more. "I don't know what's going on when I'm half asleep."

Aomine smiles to himself, his hand reaching out to run his long fingers through long yellow locks, watching as Kise's naturally ivory toned face turns into a shade of light red before pulling his hand away. "Bed head."

"T-thanks," Kise stutters, still flushed. His attention is directed at Sai who's still staring at him from Aomine's lap, and slides his hands under her arms and hoists her up into the air. He looks as Aomine brings up his hands to cover his nostrils, and sniffs around them before crinkling his nose. "Sa-chan, you stink."

"Shii?"

"Oi, did you buy any diapers?"

"Yeah, it's in the bottom drawer of your bathroom sink,"

Aomine nods, brushing off the annoying voices in his head that had been teasing him about how he's still on the same bed as Kise, with his shirt pulled hallway up his body, exposing his toned abdomen and a tiny portion right under his hipbone. Oh. So that's what the one-fourth naked thing Kise was going on about. He lifts Sai up, careful not to touch her diaper, carrying her by her tummy, and then strides all the way to the bathroom with Sai giggling and blabbering her own language.

Kise gets up and tidies his own clothes and the bed, and Aomine watches by the corner of his eyes, musing how people would get the wrong idea if they see them like this.

But hot damn, that dumbass actually looks fuckable when he's dishevelled.

Heat slowly creeping up to his face, he shakes his head at the stupid thought and resume dragging himself and Sai to the bathroom.

* * *

"How the hell do you even do this,"

The question comes out more like an exasperated flat statement rather than a legitimate question, with all kinds of frown lingering on Aomine's lips every few seconds. He's embarrassed, of course, since he's changing the diaper of a female toddler, but what bugs him more is that the diaper just wouldn't magically snap on Sai. Wasn't it supposed to?

At this rate, she'll just end up peeing on the bathtub they were in and he's have to go through the trouble of cleaning it up yet again.

"Kiseeee," he whines out, finally giving up on having a staring contest with Sai's diaper and mentally trying to force it to get up and attach on the toddler's butt and do it's job. But the stupid thing just won't listen.

There were sounds of light footsteps before a head magically pops out of nowhere, peering at them with curiosity. "What's wrong, Aominecchi?"

"That stupid thing won't listen."

Honey eyes narrow dangerously. "Saicchi's just a baby—"

"I meant the diaper."

Er.

"...what. Aominecchi, diaper's do not have ears." He blinks, sighs, then raises a brow when Aomine leans his head to the tiled bathroom wall to his right. "Need help?"

"Why do you think I called you?" He asks, still leaning on the wall, fingers ghosting over his own forehead. It hasn't even been an half an hour ever since he got out of bed and the poor man already looks drained out... all because of a diaper, the model muses.

Kise chuckles, casually strolling into the bathroom. "You'd make a horrible father, Aominecchi."

"Ah!?"

The blond laughs at his snarling face, throwing up his hand in resignation. "I'm kidding! I'm kidding, you just have to learn how to take care of babies, neh? But other than that, I can see you could be a pretty awesome dad. To be honest, I didn't think you'd handle babies pretty well."

"Tch. I told you it's my first time taking care of a kid." He mutters, and for once, actually pays attention as Kise carefully strips the piece of paper off the sticky part. "What was her parents thinking, leaving her to me?"

Kise shrugs, humming silently and making faces at the baby. "Don't you think that they might have had financial difficulties enough to not be able to support her? But, Aominecchi, I still wouldn't be surprised if you just suddenly blurt out that Saicchi's your daughter... she kind of looks like you, see?"

"Funny, I would've said the same thing for you."

"How so?"

He stays quiet for a bit, observing as Kise lifts the toddler's butt slightly up in the air and slides the bottom part of the diaper underneath. Sai, on the other hand, is surprisingly hushed up, watching her own hand ball up into a fist and then spread back into normal size again with fascination. "The eyes."

Kise laughs, somewhat skeptical. "But it's quite impossible, neh? Since we're both guys and we haven't even had sex."

"Yet?"

"Pervert!"

The taller man releases a deep chuckle, while the model just throws him another glare over his shoulder, his face tainted with a light blush. Then Kise returns his focus on putting on the absorbing underwear on the baby. "Still, aren't you glad the parents left Saicchi to you?"

"I don't know."

"I quite am."

Aomine looks at him, slightly confused. "And why is that? To watch me struggle taking care of a baby?"

"Of course not!" He puffs out his cheeks at the accusation, adjusting the diaper more until it's perfectly snuggled around Sai's waist. Then he smiles at the said toddler, their similar honey brown eyes meeting as she stares up at him with bigger ones. "That's a secret, I guess."

_Cause I was given a second chance to meet Aominecchi through you, Saicchi. Thank you._

* * *

Aomine watches from the corner of his eyes as Kise lowers Sai onto the couch right beside of him He lets her crawl onto his lap smirking slightly as she snuggled into him with her eyes focusing on the cartoon characters singing on the television.

"Ah, Aominecchi, I'm going home."

Aomine stiffens in his seat. Going home. Kise was going home. Of course, he'd have to go home—he doesn't live here anyway, and Aomine can't keep him locked up in his apartment forever because he has a life to continue on, and most of all for the fact that he has no control over him. He's not his brother, nor his best friend, not his lover. Aomine cringes, slowly nodding, but doesn't realize that the blond hasn't moved an inch from where he's standing, silently observing his reaction.

But he remains sitting there, thinking about regrets, faults, about stuff. There are a lot going through his head, questions doubting if he's going to regret letting Kise leave yet again. Would the same thing happen again, he doesn't know, and certainly wouldn't want it to. Because the last time he did, he knew he regretted it—why didn't he stop him? Why didn't he ask questions? Why, two years ago, did he just sit there, dumbfounded and skeptically staring at his phone, doing nothing? If he didn't, if he at least tried to demand for questions, then he would've been able to stop him, he would've been able to avoid pathetically wallowing in emotions and, and—

"Aominecchi? You okay?"

He snaps out of his dazed state, blinking, eyes trying fixate at the messy blur of yellow clogging up his view. He stumbles back a bit when his vision turns clear because, slightly flustered from such close proximity, but Kise doesn't seem to notice. "Ah, sorry, just randomly started thinking of stupid stuff. Go ahead."

"Alright, I'll be leaving then. Bye bye, Saicchi~"

"Buh buh!"

Smiling, he reaches out for the lock on top of the doorknob and clicks it open, twists the handle, and then pulls the door open. Before he could slip out of the apartment, he's stopped by a voice calling out, "Kise!", and when he spins around, Aomine's standing there with his hands keeping the door from closing, baby in hand.

"Hm?"

"You'll..." Aomine mutters, looking away with his face trying to form in what seemed agitation, but Kise knows this look well because_ Midorimacchi_. Agh, his Aominecchi definitely had a tsundere* side.

"Er, you'll, you know...?"

Kise tilts his head innocently, but in his mind it's all evil cackles and rejoicing dances. "I'll what?"

"You'll come back, right?"

The blond finds it surprising that the whole sentence with a straight face since he was practically semi-stammering a while ago, but then he holds back a laugh when a hint of red slowly creeps up from his ears to his cheeks. But then again, Kise was never good at covering things up, so he lets out another snort (for what seemed like the millionth time in a single day) which eventually resorted into full blown laugher (that too).

"Answer me already! And quit laughing, you dipshit, it was already embarrassing to say something like that!" Aomine grunts, glowering at him from his position. Sai watches them from the sidelines, eyes curiously darting back and forth from Kise who was laughing and now wiping tears away from his eyes and Aomine who's still giving Kise the dirty look.

"Sorry. It's just that Aominecchi's deredere* side is so cute sometimes."

"Der-what? I'll kill you,"

Nonchalantly ignoring Aomine's threats, he grins cheekily, pressing his weight onto the doorframe. "Anyway, of course~ If I get to annoy Aominecchi and play with cute little Saicchi, then why not?"

"Why you little—" he pinches Kise's nose in between his middle and index finger, precisely making sure he does so cruelly, ignoring the pained and abnormally high pitched whines from the other. He only releases him when Kise sticks out his tongue to get him to remove his hands, which worked successfully.

"Ow.. but seriously, I promised you, didn't I, Aominecchi? That I'd stay until I'm able to tell you everything." He asks, serious, but the redness of Kise's nose just ruins the whole supposedly serious mood. "And I can't leave Saicchi to a big ganguro monster."

"I'll decapitate you, you little shit—"

Kise simply grins. "Alright, I'll be going now, be back in a while. Bye Saicchi," and then turns to face Aomine, thinking about teasing him slightly, "Bye honey~" he adds teasingly, winking, before spinning around and—

Aomime grabs him by the wrist, slightly bending down to plant a hurried sloppy kiss on his cheek. "The wife needs a goodbye kiss from the husband, neh? How could I forget," He pulls away, his smirk crooked, before walking back in his apartment all while leaving the said wife into a blushing mess. Damn, he shouldn't be that affected by a single peck on the cheek but... crap.

Well that fired back smoothly.

* * *

**Vocabulary (*):**

_deredere_ - lovey dovey, cute.

_tsundere_ - a person who acts initially cold and hostile to people (tsuntsun) but has a cute or sweet side (deredere). This person will sometimes show his / her sweet side gradually. see: midorima-kun. owo

_aho / baka_ - idiot. (so basically _aho_mine means _idiot_mine; pun)

* * *

**Note**: w; sobsobsobs school can suck my non existent dick.

this isn't beta'd cause i don't have one (anyone?) and ooc & yeah. finally got to update this chapter because i'm absent from school ;w;. i was planning to update this on sun/sat but i got too lazy so.. orz. hope you guys enjoyed it though ~ and for future chapters there will be a lot of revelations, ufufufu /shots

reviews, faves, and follows are very much appreciated!


	4. Four - settling in

**Note:** i'm so very tired and sad and i cannot concentrate in writing which is why i took so long "orz. ;w; im sowwee.

Edit 23/07/2013; 2:45 AM [whispers] guys. _guys_. did you know that the last three (including this) chapters were edited and beta'd my someone awesome with the pennane of **Blank Angel**? Go on her page to find more awesome aokise :3 (link on my profile ohonhonhon) ~

anyway, here it is, enjoy~

* * *

**chapter. iv**

It takes Kise less than an hour to return from his apartment. When he does, he has a small backpack and one plastic bag in hand.

"What are those for?" Aomine asks, with Sai on his left shoulder (who, thankfully, had her arms wrapped securely around his head), pointing at the plain white plastic bag dangling off his left hand and then to the bag on Kise's shoulders.

The said man peers down at the bag, opening it slightly enough for Aomine to see what's inside. "There's a really nice couple right next door from mine and they have a 5 year old son, so I just passed by to ask if they still had smaller clothes and luckily they did. Saicchi doesn't really have much with her so I guess we have to go shopping soon, ne?"

"Yeah." He nods, walking back to the couch and placing Sai on his tummy before laying his head down on the soft armrest of the sofa. "The other bag?"

"Er.. extra clothes, just in case I might need it, so I don't have to go back and forth between my apartment and here."

Aomine simply hums in return, raising his legs when Sai tries to climb it, making it impossible for the toddler to do so since she ends up falling back down on his belly. "Hm, you can put it down if you want. You could've just borrowed my clothes, our sizes aren't really that far."

"But Aominecchi doesn't have a sense of style,"

"Shut up." He grunts, shooting him a glare from his position, and Kise just laughs and sticks his tongue out at him. Aomine rips of a sock off his foot and throws it into the direction Kise's standing at, and unfortunately for the blond, it lands square of his face. In the end, Kise whines about how Aomine's sock ruins the charms of his model face, and Aomine retorts with a snort and a comment on how it was already ruined ever since he was born.

For now, they're just glad everything's far from awkward between them.

* * *

"Aominecchi..."

There's a grunt—

"Ahominecchiiii,"

—soon followed by a huge sigh and a face-palm.

"AHOMINECCHIII! Come on!"

If there only is a desk in front of Aomine right this moment, he would gladly take it and slump on it in defeat. "Hell, Kise, would you kindly shut up and stop making that stupid nickname into a god-awful song before I personally walk over to where you are and stitch up that horrible sounding mouth of yours?"

"Meanie!" Cheeks puffes out and eyebrows almost touching each other, Kise shoots a childish glare at Aomine. "Don't insult my singing abilities, Idiotminecchi! I win full scores in karaoke's, you know!"

The larger man scoffs. "Karaoke scores are lies."

"Hmph, it's not like you could sing any better than me," Kise pouts and Aomine just smirks at him, this time stretching out an arm instead of his legs to keep Sai from falling off both him and the couch. "As I was saying... let's go shopping!"

"Shahpng?"

Kise chuckles, reaching out to pinch the toddler's cheeks as she squeals whilst flailing her hands mid-air. "Yep, shopping!"

"Nope."

"_Please_, Aominecchi? It would be fun!"

"Nope."

"And Saicchi needs clothes and stuff anyway, you wouldn't want her to go commando now, would you? Come on~"

"No."

He pouts - those types of pouts where he actually succeeds in getting what he wants; consisting of puffed out cheeks, furrowed eyebrows and, of course, puppy eyes, and the taller man finds himself trying to avoid his puppy eyes by focusing on the television. What they don't realize is that little Sai is, like Kise, a fast learner (...and that she had been watching Kise closely ever since they've started bickering.)

And so she sucks in air and puffs out her cheeks, looking at the former ace with similar but larger, puppy honey-brown eyes. Aomine had always had weak spots for animals, mainly dogs, and when you add Kise and Sai into the mix...

_These two could definitely pass as scheming parent-and-daughter_, is what Aomine thinks as he slumps his shoulders and sighs out a defeated-sounding "Fine."

* * *

"Cabs or the subway?"

Aomine frowns, lifting Sai off the bathtub after changing her into another diaper. He struggles to put her in her borrowed clothes, which had been hand-washed and dried by Kise, whereas the said model was preparing stuff for their little shopping trip. "How should I know, I've only been here for 2 weeks."

"Ah, cab it is then." The blond hums pleasantly, zipping up the bag and throwing it over his shoulders. They both had taken a bath before giving Sai one, and now all they have to do is put on shoes, lock the door, and then catch a cab.

Aomine decides not to bring the car seat since it seems much of a hassle while Kise agrees, and the both of them decide to switch between carrying Sai. It's Aomine who gets to carry the toddler first while Kise handles the backpack and the locking of the door.

It's only all three are in the elevator when the taller man realizes that this will be indeed a long day, since there's Sai, money, the mall, and of course... Kise.

* * *

There are many things that people assume about Kise, and one of those, with him being a model, is that he likes to carelessly spend his money on useless clothes. Only a part of it is true, though. The blond _does_ like to spend his money - just not carelessly and on useless stuff.

So when Aomine's dragged along with Sai and Kise, he finds himself confused that he's only carrying one shopping bag in his arm and the cart not even halfway full. He stares at the said blond, who's looking through the parenting section of Wal-Mart (that store with the obnoxious 'Save money, live better' banner in every corner), carrying Sai on one arm while holding the side part of the cart in another. "Oi, oi, isn't this unusual? Did you eat something bad?"

"Unusual? Something bad? Aominecchi, don't tell me you made us eat your cooking this morning?!"

The taller man offers him a glare. "Hey, my cooking isn't _that_ bad. Satsuki's is worse," He pauses, scoffing. "And yes, unusual, since you haven't placed the whole mall into the shopping cart and my arms are still intact."

"What..? I don't spend that much!" Kise argues, and Aomine finds it amusing that he's glaring at a can of mashed peaches in his hand, instead of at him.

"Oi, the bathroom in your apartment back in Japan was flooded with stupid girly face and body and hair products, and you had to have three closets in your room to fit all your clothes. An average guy needs _one_."

"Aominecchi, I'm a model and we actually have to change clothes everyday rather than use the same shorts in a week straight."

He hums at the retort, hands gripping lightly on the cart to push it into a u-turn, entering another aisle. He watches as both pairs of honey brown eyes scan the shelf of baby bottles, parenting books, and stuff toys. Aomine halts pushing his cart to grab a book, eyes on the pages, and stops flipping through the book when he finds something useful. "Oi, Kise,"

"Hm?"

"Look at this book." He mutters, and doesn't notice when Kise glances at him from over his shoulder with an amused expression etched on his million-dollar face. "It actually has steps on how to make a bottle of milk and what to buy for toddlers."

Kise throws his head back and laughs. "You don't know how to make a bottle of milk, Ahominecchi?"

Aomine throws him a glare, one of a mixture of playfulness and irritation, but no malice. "Are you trying to pick a fight?"

"No," The model says, lips quirking into a small grin, taking the book from the taller man and placing it in the cart before placing Sai down on the seat (and at the same time trying to ignore her pouts.) "Don't worry, I don't know how to, either."

He almost snorts at the opening and closing of Aomine's lips - that similar to one of a gaping fish - and then flashes him a cheeky grin when the other offers him a deadpan (more like Kuroko's version of the _wtf_) expression.

"You cheeky bastard."

* * *

"Ne, Aominecchi, should I choose this,"—Kise raises 3 shirts, one with a _daddy's little girl_ print on it, the two with little cutesy designs, and Aomine wants to snort at the first choice—"Or this?" In which this time he holds up two frilly dresses, which looked like it would fit quite nicely on Sai.

Aomine raises a brow. "Why me? You're the one who wants to shop, choose it yourself."

Kise huffs, muttering a small '_fine'_ before facing the small bluenette. "So, which one does cute little Saicchi prefer?"

Sai only stares at him with large eyes, eyeing both the dresses and the shirts, before diverting her attention back to the small ball Aomine had handed her when she started crying. The blond finds himself sulking about how both of them plainly ignored his enthusiasm, whereas Aomine just sighed and helped him pick out the clothes, consisting of plain pants, some skirts, shirts, and hoodies, which Kise argues about it being too plain; ("Aominecchi, I swear if Saicchi inherits your lack in sense of style—" which, of course, earned him an annoyed hit on the back of his head.)

In the end, they ended up buying everything of what both the ace and the copycat had picked.

* * *

"Ne, Aominecchi,"

It's a busy place in the food court, really, and Aomine feels like he can never get used to the noise and the chaos in one single building. It's New York, he reminds himself, but comparing this to the capital of Japan, Tokyo is nothing. The place seems to be filled with different kinds of people, ones with blond hair (nothing like Kise's, though. His hair seems to be much... what was the word? Livelier? Sunnier? Yes.), other with tanned skin as his - though his' seems to be a lighter shade than most tans, some from the Asian heritage like both of them. New York seems to be a place filled with different kinds of people, both by appearance and personality.

"Hm?" he asks, still disappointed at the lack of different types of burgers - mainly the teriyaki burger - in McDonald's™.

Kise's sitting across the table, munching on his own fries and handing some to Sai, who's quietly sitting on her new stroller. (Speaking of the stroller, the two basketball idiots had a quite eventful bickering back at the store from choosing whoever was going to pay. Aomine won in the end.) His attention is mainly on the taller man on the other side of the table, absent-mindedly chewing on the straw to his coke. "Why'd you come here to New York?"

It was a straightforward question, and Aomine likes it that way, being used to it _cough_kuroko_cough_, but sometimes he just finds himself completely taken aback - like right now. He's silent for a moment, carefully contemplating on his answer - since he would rather not be blurting out the legit reason as to why he's come to NYC to the one who is, at the moment, sitting in front of him and asking a question with himself as the answer.

"Aominecchi?"

But then again, he _is_ Ahomine -

"To start anew, you know, from us and everyone else." - and Ahomine gives straightforward answers to everything, especially to straightforward questions.

It's now Kise who's completely taken aback from his answer, being the one practically frozen in his seat with Aomine in front of him looking like he's eating lemon while being forced to keep on a blank face (Aomine feels like returning the question. He doesn't, because he knows that Kise won't answer it.)

"Wait, what?"

"Don't worry, that's only partially the reason," it's true, but the way Aomine had said it with hastiness makes him feel like he's saying something that sounds like a lie. "My aunt thought it would be a good idea for me to move here, you know, so I could study at a good university."

"Eeh? What university are you gonna go to?"

"Cornell."

Kise's eyes becomes a fraction wider than normal, before his expression switches from surprised to doubtful. "No way."

"Yes way." Aomine says, both eyebrows shooting up. "Why, you going there too?"

He nods, a little bit too slowly this time. "Mhm. I'm going to be in my second year though... I thought idiots shouldn't be getting in high universities?"

The former ace's eyes narrow, shooting Kise a glare who chuckled humorously, handing another fry to Sai. The toddler took it with both hands, munching on it while she quietly stayed sitting on her stroller.

"Shut up," he mumbles, taking a sip from his coke. "What major course, by the way?"

"Aeronautical engineering." Kise says simply, eyes subconsciously roaming around the part of the court in front of him and beside Aomine.

But before he could ask the same question back at the other, he's interrupted with another question. "Engineering? I thought you'd be more of a... I don't know, showbiz industry or piloting type of guy, you know? Not those math-related courses crap."

"Hey!" The blond defends, "Engineering _is_ interesting, okay. Maybe not with cars or other kinds of engineering but aero-planes certainly do interest me," he smiles, sticking his tongue at the bluenet when Aomine comments with a '_for once you sounded smart there.._'. "And I still work as a model, just from time to time. Plus, I also wanted to be a pilot, but—" this time he points at his glasses. "—yeah. Bad eyesight."

Aomine nods, somewhat understanding.

"How about you, 'minecchi?"

The taller man hums, looking like he's in some kind of deep thought as he leans his head onto his curled up right hand. "A cop."

The sides of Kise's lips twitch up into a small smile, two french-fries still shoved into his mouth. He watches as Aomine's eyebrow raises up in confusion - which looks more like (and most likely is) the 'why-the-fuck-are-you-smiling-creepily-at-me' look. "I figured, since your face and your personality and attit— never mind."

"Am I supposed to be offended?" Aomine asks incredulously, now with both eyebrows raised, and Kise takes note of how he looks more matured than how he's seen him two years ago. Firmer jaw, broader muscle, his hair longer kept; maybe about an inch shorter than his', which only went past his ears. Small details, apparently, do matter, and the model finds it amazing at how how much has changed over the years he hasn't seen him. It's only been two... not like he's complaining.

"I don't know, should you?" he asks, just to poke fun at Aomine, which apparently works since the guy just started randomly muttering something that sounded like: "Don't you go sarcastic on me, you little shit."

Kise throws his head back and barks out a laugh, only irritating Aomine further.

The said blue-haired man leans over the table, and Kise only escapes from the tanned man's wrath when he offers him ice creams and cicadas (...more like screams at him for the whole food court to hear.)

* * *

It's around a few hours after sunset when the makeshift family had finally gotten home, since Kise had insisted they'd buy more healthy food to stuff into Aomine's fridge. By the time they enter the empty and dark apartment, Aomine practically drops into a coma on the couch whereas Sai had already been snoring in her little stroller. It's Kise who's the only one left with a tad bit energy (taking the fact that he's a model, and also had an experience in horrendously plentiful shopping, into consideration.)

Since the crib still has yet to arrive to their apartment in three days time, the bed is where Kise places Sai after he's changed her diaper.

When he's done tucking the small bluenette in for bed, he brushes her bangs to a side and places a parental kiss on her forehead, whispering ever so lightly, "Goodnight, my little Saicchi."

* * *

Kise heads back out into the barely illuminated living room with both a thin blanket and a pillow in his arms, to find Aomine peacefully sprawled on the couch. He sits on the armrest, placing the pillow under the sleeping male's head, watching intently; observing the way his face scrunches up and his lips twitch whenever he snores. Kise bites on his lower lip, feeling more or less like a creep, but is all too amused of Aomine's sleeping face to even give a damn.

He sits for a bit, resting his legs, before standing back up and finally draping the blanket over Aomine. Kise finds himself reluctant, though, since sleeping Aomine looks so peaceful that it's contagious and it makes Kise feel like he just wants to cuddle up the dude and feel comforted and whatnot.

(He knows it's not forever, and that it may be the last time he sees this kind of face because – **a.** watching a person sleep is _totally not_ creepy, and if Aomine, by any chance, just wakes up, seeing Kise watching him intently certainly would _not_ make him feel uneasy, right? & **b.** any time could Kise tell Aomine everything, and if by the spur of the moment it just happens to spill out of his mouth, he'll have to go into hiding away from him.)

The blond releases a heavy sigh, walking back into the kitchen to prepare dinner since the shorter hand has yet to point dead on the number 8 and the night is still young. It's just the basketball idiot and the all-day-every-day hyperactive toddler that has fallen asleep like they've been playing basketball for a week non-stop. Earlier he's watched chefs on television stir up something casual that he thinks both Aomine and Sai would enjoy, and him still being the famous Teikou's copycat player, has already mastered it in his mind.

And so he took the ingredients from the plastic bags on the floor, and began stirring and frying and cooking.

* * *

Aomine finds himself waking up to the sound of clanking of the plates, humming, and the smell of heaven. He's wondering if by any chance he's fallen asleep in some restaurant - although he kind of rather hopes not. (...restaurants aren't exactly one of those places where you could simply fall asleep and no one would think you're out of your mind.)

But then when he forces his eyes open it's the familiar ceiling of his house that greets him, and the bluenet thinks it can't be coming from his house because his house contains two adults that are absolutely shitty in cooking and a toddler that cannot possibly cook. But then again, this is the apartment that houses two former members of the generation of miracles.

Generation of fucking _miracles_.

And they hadn't just magically earned that name out of the whim (though basketball is a different story, but whatever.) Slowly, he sits up on the couch, sparing a glance at the pillow and the blanket that just fell off his shoulder and is now on his torso. He's sure as hell he had aimed right for the couch as soon as he stepped a foot into his small home, not gone to their room and pick up a blanket and pillow and _then_ go head to the sofa.

He shrugs, mostly to himself, eyeing Kise as the blond flawlessly trots around the kitchen. Although being close friends in high school, before and after realizing his sexuality and his growing fondness of the model, Aomine has never seen this side of Kise. It's almost funny, he muses, that Kise seems more suitable to be a housewife rather than a working husband.

_His_ housewife. Or house-husband. Or whatever—as long as he stays his'.

"Aominecchi, you're awake~" Kise hums, smiling swiftly while setting the plates down on the small dinner table, breaking into Aomine's daydreaming.

The latter doesn't mind not stifling a large yawn. He rubs on his eyes when water clouds his vision, and then lazily getting his foot off the seat and onto the floor, shaking his head at his earlier thoughts. Damn, it hasn't even been a week ever since he's found Kise, and yet here they were, acting like nothing has ever happened. If not, more attached and fucking romantic like it's all straight out of a book.

Somehow, at the back of his mind, he knows it wasn't supposed to turn out so seemingly perfect. That, or either he knows that somewhere in the middle, it doubtlessly wouldn't be turning out to be the best.

"Hm. What are you cooking?" he asks absentmindedly, hand scratching the whole back of his head.

Kise nibbles on his bottom lip, and cocks his head to a side as if thinking (and Aomine watches intently on the single action. Lately he's been carefully watching every single action that Kise makes, seductive and unintentional or not, he notes, and he finds it quite terrifying of himself to be acting… well, like _this_.) "Err, what did they call this? I think it was something like Misa Soup."

"Miso Soup?"

"Yeah, that." He grins sheepishly, placing the pot directly onto the table. Somehow at this action, Aomine feels like he should be horrified, but simply shrugs it off. The taller of the two glances at the food in the pan. It looks edible... delicious, even.

"Then what was all that frying for? I thought you didn't have to fry the soup?" He mutters, staring at the pot on the table, and then blanches when smoke rises up from the wooden furniture.

In all hastiness, he jumps over the leather couch and onto the table, grabbing the heated pot from the table with a perfect OMG–WTF face. Kise's mouth stops letting any word flow out and stares at him questioningly from his place in the kitchen, before turning white as humanly as possible. He grabs the basin of water under the running faucet and throws its contents at the charred furniture, effectively drenching Aomine along with it.

Said drenched man shoots him a glare after looking at his now-wet attire. "...the fuck was that for?!"

"Oops," the model mutters lamely. "Um, it means that you need to take a bath now? Ehehe..."

Aomine snorts at him, looking shortly at Kise's nervous smile before letting out a humored sigh, before complying.

* * *

When he's done taking a shower, he trots out of the bathroom, almost naked, with a towel wrapped around his waist. The floor and the partially charred table were now free from earliers' waterworks, and the pot now stayed on the stove while two normal plates and one small plastic bowl were laid on the table, with a huge bowl of Miso soup laid on the centre.

And when Kise looks up from his seat on the couch the ex-ace watches in mild amusement as his face morphs from a normal colour to an unhealthy shade of pinkish red. Aomine stares back with a huge question mark written all over him. The blond splutters and throws a pillow to his direction, "Aominecchi! Would you mind putting some clothes on?!"

—which, of course, hits the towel wrapped around his hips which eventually loosens its grip, falling on the ground and on Aomine's feet with a barely audible thud.

The bluenette hardly had time to register what had happened when Kise starts screeching, face turning so red that steam threatens to blow out from his ears, and, well… jumping to the other end of the couch in an attempt to hide his head in the tiny space under the armrest.

"Ah, I guess I should put on some clothes."

* * *

A good five minutes of that day—those five minutes Aomine spent in the washroom putting on some clothes, Kise spends his time worrying about how to act around Aomine now that he's seen... _that_, and also how the lad would act around him. _What if he starts acting awkward?_

He flinches when the door to the washroom creaks open, and freezes when the said lad sits on the chair across from where he's sitting. Kise could feel sweat starting to drip down his forehead at the intense gaze Aomine's giving him. The blond can't help but gape when Aomine starts cackling like a madman. Soon, he's laughing too.

The only time they stop is when Sai wails from their bedroom.

"...oops."

* * *

After finally getting the toddler back to bed, they return to the table, eating and chatting about stuff. Discussing about their times back in Teikou, how they should try to play one-on-one sometime soon when they find time in between taking care of Sai, how Kuroko and Kagami and the rest of the Mira-Gen are... never the reason to why Kise left in the first place.

Surprisingly, the meal is relatively normal; except that Aomine finds it strange that the noodle is burnt crisp black. Last time he remembered, Kagami used white noodles to cook this... but oh well.

* * *

The clock flashes the numbers 11:53 in dark red, and Kise simply stares at it, waiting for sleep to take over him. Aomine has taken the couch in the living room (which took them about an hour to fight over; Aomine winning when he had mentioned ghosts) and his Saicchi (finally asleep) under the covers, centimeters away from himself.

He rolls over, closes his eyes, and tries again.

Just before he could completely fall into deep sleep, the phone rings, sending him jolting to at least a foot in the air with a colourful vocabulary of curses. Kise takes deep breaths to calm his heart from the shock, calmly sitting up and reaching for the phone right next to where the clock is.

"Mm… hello? Managercchi, I'm guessing this is you, ne? Goddamnit, you've got to stop calling before midnight or I'll—"

A rough voice at the end of the line chuckles, and Kise blanches, almost dropping the phone. _"My, my, Ryouta. That isn't how you talk to me now, hm?"_

"How did—_fuck_, how, y-you..."

_"It's a pleasant evening, don't you think?"_

If this person wasn't who he was and how he acted and whatnot, calling him at midnight, Kise would have scoffed and retorted with something snappy and ridiculing. But no matter how much of a stupid air headed blond Kise seems, he knows he shouldn't. "Y-Yeah. Why... why're you calling at 12 in the morning?"

_"Oh, nothing, just checking up on my sweet tea."_

The model holds in the bile rising up from his stomach. Disgusting.

"...right. Uh, I have to catch up on my sleep," he reasons, in haste to end the conversation with the man, chuckling nervously to hide his horror. "So, yeah, if that's all, have a good night."

"_Hold up, Ryouta_." The man says, and Kise could almost feel the small smile on the other's face while he says this. "_You don't want to talk to me? It's fine, but babe,_"—the model grimaces at the pet-name "_don't tire yourself out too much because of the baby and your little boy toy, alright? Make sure you get some proper rest. Goodnight._"

The man hangs up, and Kise drops the phone with shaking hands.

Instead of picking it up, he runs to the bathroom and purges his dinner out, hands shaking as he grips the faucet. He knows he should've been more careful.

* * *

**Notes:** -inserts suspenseful soundtrack here-

um. so. we have a plot advance here, people (monotone yay clap clap woo hoo). oh & i'll be posting another aokise & kagakuro story soon. it's about them being heir's of a company, and... the story's pretty damn clichéd but i do enjoy writing them so stay tuned ;w;

does anyone read the authors notes? no? whatever, but i still love you guys for sticking with my sorry ass. i read your reviews, and get giddy, and roll over the floor, and die — ...maybe that was exaggerated to much, though i do take a pillow and scream in it because holy shit you guys are _adorable. _do review, follow, and favourite. you know how authors love them. owo

[**EDIT**] it's already been posteeed~ called matrimonial hitch, i think. somewhere in my profile if you'd like to see it ^^. Anyway, this is on hiatus until season two begins (or at least when i get my motivation back...)


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